Floor 1, Part 3: Murphy's Ghost
Psst, Josh. Come over here. Take a look.
Is this... a map!?
You're quite perceptive, Josh. It is indeed a map I conjured up.
What do you mean, "conjured up"?
Well... I collar-grabbed
him.
"Him"?
It doesn't matter. You wouldn't understand. To truly understand, you'd need the contrast, not adherence to a single ideal, Josh.
........
All that matters is, I wrestled with
him and won.
I don't understand, but... Teach me to collar-grab, MCA-sensei.
Sure, Josh. Watch me closely. .... Can you repeat that?
*makes a devastating collar grabbing move*
Ahhhaaaargh... Well done, Josh! Yes, well done indeed! You will find that collar grabbing is an excellent way of getting information.
All right, so MCA "conjured up" a map for us. Let's have a closer look.
The first level is basically a tutorial level, yet it already has a few tricks up its sleeve (which is the best way you can make a tutorial dungeon
not boring). The greyed-out tiles are the dark zone we already (kind of) visited earlier. There are also teleporters (the circled numbers, 1 takes you to 1', etc.), one-way doors, and secret doors. You can easily makes those out on the map without my help, I hope. Oh, and we start at (0,0), whereas (0,10) marks the stairs down to level two.
Oh, and if we make it through the dark zone, we can reach the well-hidden elevator at (10,8)!
Ugh... too many... buttons...
Being the lead designer on Dragon Age II, Laidlaw can't handle that many buttons. Plus we have the no shortcut policy. So let's just... forget about the elevator for now.
Let's rather build up our experience and go grab those keys at (13,18) and (13,3).
Holy shit! Hand me my shotgun, woman!
We've been surprised! David, do something!
Necrofantasia!
W-what
are you?
You could say I'm Yog-Sothoth with Nyarlathotep's penchant for chaos, to put me into perspective.
....
Haha, got you.
We make our way to (13,18).
It was really nice of those pointy-eared pricks to warn us about the demons, I guess. Except their damn inscription is hardly fucking legible!
But hey, a key. That changes everything! The demons? Bah! We have the key!
Now we only need some more exp for MCA the Bishop. Being the most advanced of all the classes we currently have, he's also the slowest one to level up.
The next group of skeletons we encounter even manage to finally hurt us. The bastards.
They turn out to be Undead Kobolds, by the way.
The Kobold can't withstand Gaider striking from the shadows!
With progress like that, I'm bound to start going "mwa-ha-ha-ha" at some point!
And the rest of the party can level up now.
Before resting, Sawyer heals Todd, since his spell points will be replenished when he rests anyway.
The party's spellcasters can learn new spells when leveling up (then again, they may not if the dice aren't on their side), which is, of course, crucial for their efficiency.
Sawyer's new spell is
Badios, which is the opposite of
Dios in that, instead of healing, it deals 1 to 8 points of damage to an enemy.
Are you really *gasp* sleeping, MCA-sensei? Didn't you tell me sleep is weakness?
............
MCA learns two new spells: Mogref and Dumapic.
Mogref lowers the caster's AC by two, whereas
Dumapic is an exploration spell: it gives you the location of the party relative to the stairs leading back up to the castle (given as three coordinates: (x,y) plus how many levels below the first floor you currently are).
Laidlaw gets the same spells as MCA, and while his HP increase isn't really great, hey, I'm not complaining.
Anyway, back to the maze we go. Arriving at (13,4) is a bit tricky. We must first take the secret one-way door at (19,9), then head down the corridor to (5,9) which teleports us straight to 1' at (15,4):
The door ahead is, as you can judge from the map, a loop. So fuck that.
Let's hit the door on the left instead, which brings us to (13,3):
A cat chicken?
Oh.
Aaaah!
Overcoming his fear, Pete reaches for the key.
"Fear"? What fear are you talking about, man? I only screamed because that statue is damn cute. Like, aaah! so cute, man!
A hooded man? Now that certainly means no trouble of any kind.
Welcome to the first boss fight!
David?.. I've heard so much about you from your father, David.
My father? What do you know about my father, Murphy's Ghost?
David?
Yes, Murphy?
I am your father.
...
...
...
Man, some serious shit goin' on!
You're my... long lost... father? *sobs*
Nah, I'm just kidding. Ha ha.
Freaking hilarious.
*wipes away the tears* I'm so gonna kill you now, shithead. I'll beat you to a bloody pulp!
MCA casts
Katino, but unfortunately Murphy's Ghost seems to be immune to sleep in the SNES version. Would've made the battle so much easier, wouldn't it? He also has (relatively) lots of HP, which is why he is this level's boss. He isn't particularly remarkable in any other way though, really, poor sod.
We also have Sawyer cast
Kalki to boost our defense a bit.
Gaider couldn't hide away.
Laidlaw hurls a fireball, but... well, let's say that wasn't exactly the most AWESOME fireball I've seen.
There was once
a tester named Murphy
Who went to the capital of Turkey
A most pleasant host
Turned him 'to a ghost
In a way that remains very murky
Ahem. Yeah. Anyway... Good thing the ghost doesn't really hit hard. Yeah.
YEAHHH! I'm the boss!
And hey, 741 exp!
Damn, MCA, that still not enough for you?
.........
Yeah yeah, I get it, only 19 exp needed until the next level.
To leave this area, we have to make our way through the dark zone.
And this should help with MCA's experience problem.
Hell yeah, let's go level up again.
Pete gains some Piety and Vitality (not IQ though).
Todd now has IQ of 9.
But hey, it's one whole point higher than Pete's!
Sawyer learns more spells.
The new spells are
Porfic, which lowers the Priest's AC by 4, and
Matu, which lowers the entire party's AC by 2. Should come in handy.
Gaider is now 5 hit points healthier!
MCA levels up, but no matter how hard I re-tried and re-rolled, he couldn't learn any new spells, so I guess that's the way it should be in his (i.e., a Bishop's) case.
Laidlaw... Eh... No no no...
Much better now.
Laidlaw's new spells are
Dilto, which surrounds the enemy group by darkness so they don't see the party and are easier to hit, and
Sopic, which causes the caster to become transparent for the duration of combat, lowering his AC by 4.
I see you're making good progress so far.
Well, yeah, you could say we are.
Study the dungeon design carefully so you can put the knowledge to good use in your next RPG.
The South Park RPG?
Er... well yeah... I guess... nevermind.
Now we could build up more levels fighting Murphy's Ghost over and over, of course, but I'm feeling suicidal, so we'll be heading straight to floor two next time!
)
Glorious.
of RPGs.
